Riding quite the wave of success since being joined on vocals a few albums ago by Mortuus of Funeral Mist fame, Marduk thought now was good a time as any to push out some new speed-demon filth. Iron Dawn is a very brief new EP (13 and one half minutes), initially released at the band’s recent Maryland Deathfest appearance. As a stopgap before the forthcoming follow up to 2009’s Wormwood, it succeeds quite well, never quite hitting the heights the band is capable of, but nonetheless providing a nice wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am of acrimonious black metal.
The first two tracks of Iron Dawn are right in line with the hyperspeed black metal with which Marduk gained their fame—fitting, seeing as the cover directly calls to mind Panzer Division Marduk. “Warschau 2: Headhunter Halfmoon” blasts right out with a caustic scorch, offering up sounds similar to an air raid siren while Mortuus does his best not to get his lunch on the microphone. “Wacht am Rhein: Drumbeats of Death” follows a similar tempo, but inserts a touch of dynamics by way of a semi-brooding mid-section. However, even this is far removed from some of the moodier work heard on albums such as Rom 5:12. This approach appears in the third track, “Prochorovka: Blood and Sunflowers,” a much slower and atmospheric half-song that calls to mind Mortuus’ personal project, acting as an exhale – albeit a diseased one – after the listener has been pummeled for nine minutes by the previous songs.
An excellent production (fittingly lush and raw) aids the affair, always necessary for making sense of such an unholy racket, but especially well done here. One more quick burst to punctuate the offering would have been nice, but overall Iron Dawn does what it sets out to. This certainly won’t replace Marduk’s recent full lengths, but it more than whets the appetite for whatever monstrosity they’re planning to unleash next.
